Adapt and Survive
by nivlac
Summary: It has been two weeks since Rolf Anderson sacrificed his life to save the earth, and during his funeral, a mysterious cloaked man took them and their base from the earth that they worked so hard to save. The base was put on a new, more hostile version of earth, full of mutants, slavers, radiation, and power armored soldiers with laser and plasma technology on par with their own.
1. It's finally over

**Okay, here is the rewrite to adapt and survive. I hope I did better this time, and if I didn't, well then I deserve to be snarked again. Please, if there are any issues please tell me, and Ill fix them.**

It has been two weeks since the alien temple ship had been destroyed. This should have been a time for celebration for XCOM, it certainly was for the rest of the world. Parties have been thrown all around the planet celebrating their victory over the aliens, and the festivities were still ongoing. People were all together for once, and it was thanks to Colonel Rolf Anderson. Rolf had sacrificed his life to destroy the temple ship, and as a result of that, the people of earth could continue living.

In Rolf's final moments, he shoved his friends out of the door, and told them to go. They left, reluctantly, while Rolf seized control of the ship, and flew it away from earth, where it exploded, taking Rolf with it.

His best friend Hector Barros bore a pained look on his face everywhere he went. Hector was born in Canada, and had earned the nickname 'yeti' because of how hairy of a man he was. He was an ugly guy, but he tried to make up for it by growing a magnificent beard that covered his chest when it wasn't braided together. Hectors green eyes were filled with experience, he was a heavy weapons specialist in the Canadian military, and was regarded as one of the best in his home country. This lead to him being recruited into the XCOM project, where he and Rolf met. They both were new to the project at this time, being some of the first soldiers to combat the invaders, tragically, the others that were first also died, and now Hector is the last one left from the original team.

Rolf and Hector didn't meet on good terms, and would often fight with each other over seemingly petty arguments. They were both opposite from the other, Hector disliked Rolf because of how greedy of a man he was. Rolf disliked Hector because of how obnoxious of a man he was, often yelling loudly in the middle of a quiet conversation. Eventually though, they did warm up to each other, and became best friends. Every soldier in the XCOM project that is still alive remembers the time when Hector and Rolf started singing karaoke together in the barracks. Rolf and Hector saved each others lives on more than one occasion, and started keeping score of the amount of aliens they killed, so they could compare at the end of the month. However, Rolf no longer has his karaoke buddy to compare kill counts with.

Devin Shropshire was born and raised in New York, and he was well known throughout the military for saving the lives of two of his squad mates in a seemingly hopeless firefight. Commander Dwayne decided that Devin would be a great asset to the project, so he requested that Devin join. Devin accepted almost immediately, he thought it would be great to contribute to saving the world.

Devin was the only one who volunteered for the MEC augmentations, he immediately regretted his decision afterwards, he didn't like the feel of the robotic limbs, and he didn't want his family to see him like this if they beat the aliens. Devin was considering leaving XCOM after several missions of intense combat. Rolf stopped him however, and told him that it was pretty cool having a robot man on the squad. Rolf reassured him that what he did was not a mistake, and he pointed out the several missions they went on together where Devin saved the squads lives, and assured him that his robot parts were not hideous. Devin then did a complete turnaround with his attitude about his augmentations, he no longer resented his mechanical parts, he embraced them, and even, on occasion, bragged about them to his fellow squad mates. After Rolf died, he masked his pain with sarcasm, but everyone knew that it was just façade.

Takeshi Higurashi was born and raised in Japan by his father. His mother had sadly died during childbirth. Takeshi's father was obsessed with leaving a message to the world, and having the Higurashi name known. He wasn't successful in this venture, so he decided to pass this task on to his son. Takeshi thought that the easiest way to get that goal, was to join the military. He quickly rose through the ranks, and was soon noticed by the XCOM project as a deadly marksman.

Takeshi met Rolf when he first showed up on XCOM base, Rolf had tried to be social with him, but Takeshi wasn't a sociable man, Takeshi resented most people around him, he thought that all people were the same, no matter where he went, greedy, malicious bastards, and tended to avoid most people. When Takeshi was requested to join XCOM, he accepted immediately, this would be his message to the world. He didn't think that anything, or anyone else, was more important than that message. Rolf changed his mind by giving him some important advice: "_Listen Takeshi, your LIFE is your message to the world, just make sure it's inspiring." _Takeshi realized then, that he was living his life wrong, Rolf was right, a message should be left about who you are as a person. Takeshi began to open up more to Rolf, and eventually, to his fellow squad mates. When Rolf died, Takeshi began to regress back to how he used to be before he met Rolf.

Thomas and Lisa Williams were twins that came from the United Kingdom. They both had sparkling green eyes, and brown hair. They have been together everywhere they went, and always had each others backs. When they were requested to join XCOM by their government, they both looked at each other, grinned, then accepted the offer. Though they were close, they contrasted each other heavily. Thomas was a slob, and had a very sarcastic look on life, while Lisa was neat, and was rather serious when it came to her outlook on life. Another parallel they shared was classes, Lisa was a sniper, and Thomas was an assault. After they met Rolf, the three got along immediately, and Thomas and Lisa considered him their 'brother from another mother.' It was no surprise then that after he died, they grieved as if they had lost a family member.

Laurie Cunningham was a very shrewd and bossy person, often complaining and berating those around her. When she first came to XCOM, she was fully intent on being squad leader, but as it turns out, there was already a permanent squad leader in place, a man named Rolf. Laurie would often try to belittle him into quitting his field position, but Rolf would just look at her and grin, then say something completely off subject to what they were talking about. An example would have to be when they were exercising together, and when Laurie tried to get him to quit for the umpteenth time, he said

"_After this, I'm going to go straight to commander Dwayne and beat him in chess! I've been practicing, and he will go down, this time for sure!"_

Every time he did something like that, Laurie stopped trying to get him to quit, and would just go about her day. She was fascinated at how kind Rolf was to everyone in the squad, including her. The other troops didn't like Laurie, they thought she was a pathetic wannabe trying to be in charge, but Rolf never listened to his friends when they told him about how much of a total bitch she was. He would merely nod at their statements, and change the subject much like he did with her. Eventually, Laurie stopped trying all together to get Rolf to quit being field leader. On a mission to a crashed UFO, Laurie's cover had been destroyed by a Muton berserker. She would have been done for if Rolf hadn't showed up. He jumped in front of the aliens punch, and was sent flying in the opposite direction into a few boxes.

Laurie then shot the alien in the head after she reloaded, and side stepped out of the way of the falling Muton. All the aliens in the area had been neutralized, how was Rolf though!? She ran over to him to find that his arm was bent at an odd angle, and some blood was dripping down the sides of his mouth, and he had raspy breathing. Laurie stabilized him and after they got back from the mission, Rolf was immediately rushed to the infirmary by paramedics. After a few hours, the doctors came to the troops and told them what the damage was, one broken arm. Obviously. All of his ribs were shattered, and he had some internal bleeding. He was going to be in the infirmary for a while. Ironically, while Rolf was in the sick bay, Commander Dwayne decided to give Laurie leadership of the squad. It was always going to be a temporary job, but of course, the team didn't like having to listen to her. Commander Dwayne did give most of the orders on the field, but Rolf's job was to handle the small stuff.

When Rolf was cleared for visitation, Laurie was the last to show up out of all of his friends. They talked for a little bit, and she thanked him for taking that blow for her, which he merely responded to with a shrug. After he was released from there, Rolf and Laurie got close… a little closer than expected from professional soldiers. After Rolf had died, she hadn't spoken to anyone, and whenever someone saw her, they could swear that she looked like a walking corpse.

Rolf always met the rookies when they first showed up at XCOM base, gave them a tour, conversed with them, and trained with them as well. They all looked up to Rolf, and after he died, they did things to honor his memory. The more artistic rookies would draw him, one rookie wrote a poem about him, and one rookie even aspired to write a book about the man. Every rookie wore purple though, as that was Rolf's favorite color.

Tyrone Wilkinson was born and raised in Chicago by his mother, he never knew his father, the man left before he was born. Tyrone didn't care though, in fact, Tyrone had a hard time caring about anything. He can't feel emotions, at least not to the level that his fellow squad members can. Tyrone has only been sad a few times, and is rarely happy, he joined the military because he thought it would be easy for him. Tyrone wasn't scared to take a life, and he was almost looking forward to the day when he would pull that trigger. That changed when he actually did pull the trigger, Tyrone thought that he would feel good if he killed another man, but he was wrong. After he killed him, he felt… odd, and he soon realized that killing his fellow man was something he did not want to do. The military took note of his skill however, and offered him a place in the XCOM project. If he joined them, he wouldn't be fighting his fellow man, he would be fighting alien invaders, and when he arrived to the XCOM base for the first time, Rolf looked at him and seemed to know what he _was_. Tyrone didn't like that look.

When Tyrone killed his first alien, he didn't get that empty feeling when he killed another man, he felt fulfilled, as if this is what he was meant to do in life all this time. It was exhilarating, and he wanted to kill again, to feel that feeling of fulfillment. Rolf confronted Tyrone on the subject, to which he denied. He did NOT want any of his squad mates thinking that they were working with a psychopath. Rolf saw through him however, and told him that it was okay to act how he was. Tyrone did think that the thought of that was appealing. He had been putting on a mask of clever sarcasm and dry wit, but he didn't like doing that, he felt fake. Rolf encouraged him to be real, and he did so. Tyrone never really cared all that much for Rolf, but he did respect him, so when he died, he wore a purple wristband to honor his memory.

Zhang was surprised that he was quickly able to join the XCOM project, despite his triad background. When he first met his future teammates, he killed a sectoid with a pistol, and Rolf looked at him and smiled. Zhang didn't care at the time, all he cared about was getting out of there at the moment. Zhang had wanted to join the XCOM project as soon as he got back to the base, and he had this tugging feeling in his gut that Rolf vouched for him.

When the genetics lab was built, everyone eventually got gene modded, but the first was Zhang. He was the first to receive the adaptive bone marrow, and as a result, became an even more important asset to the team. Rolf was second, he seemed a bit scared of being put into a tube for an extended period of time while the scientists tampered with his DNA. Zhang assured him that it would be a painless process, and that afterword's he would feel amazing. Rolf and Zhang never got that close, but Zhang respected Rolf for never wavering when it came to conflict. When he died, Zhang realized that humanity lost one of its greatest heroes.

Commander Dwayne Warren was an old war veteran that served in the navy. His combat experience eventually led him to being promoted to general, and after that, commander of the XCOM project in the United States. When recruiting soldiers, he always made sure that he was looking at the crème of the crop. This was a war for humanities survival, they needed the best of the best for the project, and when he saw Rolfs file, he was very impressed. Apparently, his jeep was blown up in the middle of nowhere by some Taliban, and he survived. Two of the other passengers had died however, but the driver was still alive, but with a broken leg. Rolf had to haul himself and that man back to their base, and they were deep in enemy territory, but against all odds, they made it back. Dwayne knew that they would need a medic as smart and lucky as this one when it came to combating the aliens, so he requested that he join the XCOM project. Rolf agreed of course, and he and Dwayne met.

Rolf was like his son, and Dwayne was like the father Rolf never had. When Rolf died, the commander decided to set up a funeral, and that day was today, they were going to honor his memory.

All of the soldiers were gathered just outside of the facility, and dozens metal fold out chairs were lined up alongside each other. In front of the chairs, was a small wooden stand with a brown table in front of it. On the table were some mementos from Rolf, his pictures, his dream catcher, and Rolf's chessboard. On each side of the table, there was a member of the base security personnel, just in case something happened that required force to quell.

All of the troops took their seats, while Dwayne stepped up to the stand. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"We are here today to commemorate the memory of this great man. Rolf Anderson. Rolf and I were like father and son, and it pains me greatly that he died before I did. I will miss him, and I won't forget what he did, for the earth, and for us, no matter what." Dwayne said. He stepped off of the stage, and saluted the table with Rolf's mementos. He felt a small tear trace down his cheek. Dwayne then sat down in the front row, next to Hector.

Thomas Williams was the next to climb those steps and speak into the microphone

"Rolf and I were good friends, and it's a tragic that he can't be with us today to celebrate our victory over the aliens. I know that we ALL miss him and that we are here to remember him and honor him. Some of you may forget some of your precious memories of him at one point, but there's one thing that we shouldn't forget about him, and that's his courage, the courage to stay on the temple ship, the courage to sacrifice himself for the entire world. We are here to honor his memory." Thomas said.

Thomas then stepped off of the stage, same as Dwayne, and took his seat next to his sister. Hector was the next one up.

"I just got to say, this man, this hero did great things in life, and I am going to miss him. We were best friends, brothers really, now that he is gone, I don't know what I'm going to do. We used to have talks that lasted hours, oh I wish that we could do that one more time, just sit there in the bar and talk until the sun came up. He changed who I was as a person, and I think that I can say the same for a lot of you. I'm never going to forget Rolf, and I'm going to do my best to make this world an even better place." Hector said.

He stepped off of the stage, and placed something on the table. It was a penny, Hectors penny, he took that penny everywhere with him, he considered it lucky. Hector saluted, then sat back down next to Commander Dwayne, trying his best not to tear up.

The next on stage was Lisa Williams.

"I just want to say that I am going to miss my pseudo little brother… he was a great guy, and like Hector said, a hero. Rolf told me about how he always wanted siblings... I think he considered me, Hector, and Tom as his siblings, and we did too." Lisa's eyes quickly became red, and she hid her face.

She came off stage, and saluted with tears in her eyes.

Takeshi was up next, no one knew what he was going to say about Rolf.

"I respected the man for who he was, and he gave me some life changing advice, I'm going to follow that advice, and try to be the best person that I can be. That will be my message to the world. Rolf, you left your mark on the world before you saved it, and that is commendable." Takeshi walked off the stage, saluted, then sat back down next to Tyrone, who then went up next.

"I always thought of Rolf as a very cheerful person, he seemed to accept everyone around him, even me. I don't really know what to say about the man, other than thank you. Thank you for saving this world. Rest in peace Anderson." Tyrone said, before saluting, then heading back to his seat.

Zhang then went up next, and his face held a deep frown.

"This great hero, this legends life, has ended. However, Rolf is not dead in my eyes, to me, he is alive in all of us, he affected all of us in some manner, and that is something that I can't forget. Rolf had the ability to befriend anyone, and that is something rare in this ugly but beautiful world of ours." Zhang stated, before saluting and sitting back down.

Devin stood up and went in front of the microphone, his metal limbs clinking as he made his way up them.

"The guy is an inspiration, and I'm going to tell you a story about this inspiration. There was once a man who had thought he had made a terrible choice, but a man named Rolf made him rejoice. He no longer hated his metal limbs, he embraced them, and faced he faced the foe that you all know. The enemy that was unknown is now gone, now the man who defeated them should be known, as a true hero, and anything, but a zero." Devin stated with a depressed voice.

He saluted, went back to his seat, and took a shot of alcohol.

Now it was Tyrone's turn to speak.

"I don't really have that much to say, I'm not good at this kind of thing, so I'm just going to say that I had respect for him. That's it." Tyrone said, saluting, then going back to his seat.

Laurie didn't budge from her seat, but no one was expecting her to go up on stage anyway. Laurie's auburn hair was matted and dirty, and her skin was almost as pale as a ghost. She sat away from everyone else at the funeral, she didn't want to converse with anyone there.

Dwayne went back up to the stage to give one last speech about Rolf.

"I'm going to miss that boy, I'm going to miss playing him at chess, and I'm definitely going to miss him as a person. Everyone, you know that Rolf was a hero, but the thing is, you are ALL heroes. You fought the aliens the same as Rolf did, and you succeeded. The invaders are gone, and the earth has you all to thank for that." Dwayne said.

"I just need to let you all know about something that the council decided-"Dwayne stated, before his eyes suddenly glazed over. Dwayne kept looking off into the distance ahead of him, his hands tightly gripping the wooden stand. All the XCOM operatives looked at Dwayne with a dumbfounded look on their face. What was happening to their commander?

They then noticed that something was materializing behind Dwayne. It was darker than night, and it had an ominous feeling about it. When it fully appeared, it was revealed to be a man in a black cloak, not so different looking than the grim reaper. It walked up behind Dwayne, grabbed him by the throat with one hand, and then threw him to the ground. A couple of base guards drew their assault rifles and fired at the cloaked being, which the thing simply raised its hand, and the bullets were deflected back at the people who fired them. The bullets went through both of the guard's heads, ending their lives.

The cloaked being walked up to the microphone and spoke in a gravelly voice.

"You all no longer need to be in this world, now, time for you to go." The cloaked man said.

All of the XCOM operatives attempted to move, but some kind of force was holding them down, they couldn't escape what was about to happen.

The cloaked being raised his open hand, then squeezed. After that, all was dark for XCOM, everyone in, and around the base had fallen unconscious. A few hours later, the council had tried to make contact with XCOM, only to be met with silence. They sent a chopper out there to see what was going on, and what they found baffled them. The entire base had disappeared, there was now a large chunk of land missing from the ground. The XCOM base was gone, it just simply disappeared, how had this happened? The council had thought that the aliens must have had something to do with this, but how? The Temple ship was destroyed, and there have been no UFO's in the sky ever since then. The council would be trying to solve this mystery for a long time, but they would never find the answer, however, there had been theories as to how this happened.

Maybe the Gollop chamber had somehow done this? Maybe it was the hyper wave relays fault? What blunder could have caused this? XCOM's satellites also were no longer functioning. What the hell happened?

**Alright, there it is, done. What did you all think? Was it worse, or better than the original first chapter? Please tell me its better, because the original was awful. Please review.**


	2. Big trouble in Big Town

Everything was so dark… Hector didn't remember what had happened exactly, there was an exploding ship, and then a funeral… but whose funeral was it? He couldn't quite remember… Wait a second.

"_Go now!"_ Rolf yelled, psionically shoving everyone out of the door.

No… dammit, it was Rolf's funeral! He died that day, and they had a funeral for him, but something happened during the funeral. A guy in a cloak did something to everyone at the funeral, he said something about not belonging here anymore.

Wait what the hell!? The floor he felt wasn't natural, it was metal, but they were outside! Hector got up from the floor and tried to look around his environment. He couldn't see a damn thing, it was pitch black. Hector then reached out and tried to find a wall, he tripped over a few things before he finally found a wall. Hector felt around the wall until he finally found a light switch, he flipped it upwards. The light damn near blinded Hector at first, but his eyes adjusted to the brightness fairly quickly. He looked around the room once more to find that he was in the bar in the barracks. How the hell did he get in here? Where was everyone else?

Hector decided to make his way towards the weight room a floor above him, passing through the hallway and up the stairs. Unfortunately he found no one in the hallway, but when he went into the weight room, he found a couple of the rookies laying unconscious. He tried to wake them up but they were out cold. Hector left the weight room after checking their pulses, and made his way towards the situation room.

When he entered, he found Commander Dwayne sitting against a wall, holding his skull as if he were experiencing a migraine. The large screen that was used for contacting the council was full of static, which illuminated the room with a very irritating light.

"Commander? Are you okay?" Hector asked.

"Hector? Yeah I'm fine, do you know what happened to everyone? Are they okay?" Dwayne asked.

"I have no idea sir, I did find a couple of the rookies in the exercise area, but they wouldn't wake up." Hector told him.

"Hector, help me up would you?" Dwayne asked.

"Yes sir." Hector complied.

Hector handed Dwayne his hand, and Dwayne grabbed on. Hector pulled Dwayne to his feet.

"What should we do sir?" Hector asked.

"We have to find everyone else Hector, let's have a look around here." Dwayne said.

"Yes sir." Hector replied.

…

…

…

After a few hours, they had found everyone scattered around the base. They found Vahleen in the science lab, Dr. Shen in engineering, and Bradford was nowhere to be found, they looked everywhere for him, but he was gone. They found every one of the veteran XCOM soldiers in the Gollop chamber, and they found the rookies in mission control. Every single engineer, staff members, and scientist were scattered randomly across the base, and after everyone was found, Commander Dwayne called a meeting in the situation room. They were going to discuss what had exactly happened the day of the funeral.

"As some of you might know, something happened at the funeral that rendered everyone unconscious, we are here to discuss it." Dwayne said.

"It had to be that cloaked guy!" Thomas yelled. "Did you guys listen to what he said? He said we didn't belong there. What did he mean by that?"

"But were still here Tom." Hector said. "We just woke up in the base, what I want to know, is how he did that thing with the bullets."

"I believe that the person that we are speaking about may have been psionically powerful, and so he was able to reflect the bullets. That's the only thing that makes sense to me." Vahlen said.

"If that's the case, then whoever it was wasn't human. Every psionic human soldier is in XCOM. That thing must have been an alien." Shen said.

"That makes sense, but how did we get in the base? We were all outside!" Lisa stated.

"Commander, have you tried to contact the council?" Tyrone asked.

"Yes I have, but all that comes up is static. We aren't getting a signal from our satellites either." Dwayne said.

"We should see what's going on outside." Takeshi stated.

"He's right. Hector, Takeshi, Thomas, Lisa, Devin, and one of the rookies should go." Dwayne said.

"Yes sir." Hector said.

Laurie just kept quiet, she seemed quite passive about this whole situation. Zhang looked like he had just been offended, they weren't going to bring him along? Why? Tyrone himself didn't really care

…

…

…

The rookie was wet behind the ears, that's for sure. He was from India and had shoulder length black hair, and the most noticeable thing about him was that he had a large scar that ran along his nose and towards his left eye. Thomas was sure that there was an interesting story about that.

The squad was all decked out in their gear. Thomas had his orange titan armor, Lisa had her yellow archangel armor, Hectors armor was blood red, Devin's MEC was white with red stripes, and that kinetic fist looked as threatening as ever. The rookie's armor was grey with no distinguishable marks on it, and Takeshi's armor was jet black.

They all stood in front of the door that led outside, and waited for it to open. When it finally did, they had to cover their eyes from the blinding sun. A smell then came through the door as their eyes adjusted to the light. It was dusty, and a bit… off.

When the blinding light finally was gone, the team stepped through the door, only to see a large wasteland stretched out before them. Rubble from destroyed buildings were scattered about the landscape, and ruined cars were lining the roads. Scorched trees dotted the land, and damaged power lines were everywhere. Where the hell were they? What had happened here?

"What the hell is this?" Devin asked no one in particular.

"It's a bunch of ruins." Takeshi stated.

"This is bad, really bad." Lisa said.

"The base wasn't next to a wasteland last time I checked!" Thomas said.

"Keep on the lookout everyone, we don't know what to expect out here." Hector said.

Hector looked to his left, and saw several large brown hills, and behind them were mountains. He looked to his right and saw a few houses that were surrounded by a crude barricade. Then he looked past the buildings into the distance, where he saw what must have been a hallucination.

Hector told everyone to look right, and when they did, their mouths were agape in shock. It was then that they saw the Washington monument in the distance, then the reality of the situation hit them like a train.

This wasnt an ordinary wasteland.

It was Washington D.C.

"What the hell!?" Thomas yelled.

"How the hell did we get to D.C!? And why is it so wrecked!?" Lisa asked.

"Commander Dwayne! Do you see this!?" Takeshi asked the Commander through his earpiece.

"_Yes, I see it, what the hell is going on? How did the base get here, what happened to D.C?" _Dwayne asked.

"We haven't the damndest idea commander. This doesn't seem possible, but there it is, the damn Washington monument!" Devin said.

How could this have happened? How did they end up here? Did the cloaked man bring them here? Did he have something to do with the city's destruction? So many questions…

Suddenly, they heard some gunfire come from town.

"_Move in and investigate."_ Dwayne ordered.

The squad complied lightly jogging towards the buildings. On the side of it, there were crudely done barricades, old cars stacked on top of each other, tires lined up next to one another, and poorly made palisades sticking from the ground.

"_Lisa, get up into the air, and see what's going on in there."_ Dwayne said.

Lisa complied, and launched high into the air, where she could clearly see what was going on. The first thing that she spotted was the entrance. There was a bridge that led into the town, under the bridge was a large puddle of water that had a sickly green look. Tires were in the water, and cars were stacked alongside of it. She saw a man holding a crude looking rifle at some giant green man.

The man was panicking often missing his shots, and even when he did hit, the green thing barely reacted to it. The giant held a sledgehammer and was charging across the bridge. Lisa aimed down her sights on the green monster.

"_Open fire!" _Dwayne yelled.

Well no duh. Lisa pulled the trigger, sending a bolt of plasma sailing towards its chest. The plasma hit, and the thing was knocked on its back.

"Target, neu-"Lisa started.

Much to her surprise, the thing got up again! Its chest was burnt, and the crude armor that it was wearing was melted. How did that thing survive? Some shots like that could kill a Muton elite! Granted, the thing didn't get up lightning fast, it sluggishly rose from the ground, and resumed crossing the bridge. It held its sledge hammer in one hand, and gripped its burnt chest with the other. Lisa aimed down her sights once more. After she pulled the trigger, the plasma bolt flew towards its right leg, blasting it off. Chunks of burnt skin and bone flew everywhere, and the green monster fell over the side of the bridge.

The man on the ground looked towards the source of the plasma, and saw Lisa hovering in the air. The man screamed, and ran into one of the buildings. He was panicked of course, it's not every day you see a hovering person in the air killing giant green monsters with even greener ammo.

"_Get to the ground Lisa, everyone head for the entrance." _ Dwayne said.

As soon as Lisa touched the ground, they headed along the wall and towards the entrance. When they reached the crudely built plank wood bridge, Devin had to stay back as to not crush it under his weight. Once Thomas, Lisa, Hector, Takeshi, and the rookie passed the bridge, they took cover where they could, as to make sure that these weren't hostiles that they were dealing with.

After about a minute, the man that had ran into the building came out slowly with his hands raised. He wore some kind of security helmet, and he wore a suit of poorly patched together leather. His face was dirty, but also very young. Hector could have sworn that he saw others through the various windows of the buildings.

"Hold it right there!" Hector barked out.

"Okay, okay, take whatever you want, please just don't kill us!" the man yelled.

"What's your name kid?" Hector asked him.

"Its Dusty, like I said, take whatever, just don't kill me!" Dusty yelled.

"We aren't going to kill you, unless you try something funny." Takeshi yelled.

"Alright kid, come over here, slowly." Hector said.

Dusty took small steps towards the squad, he seemed jumpy. Hector pointed his heavy plasma rifle at him and walked towards him as well. After they were in arm's length, Hector put down his gun, and patted Dusty down. When Hector was sure that he didn't have anything dangerous on him, he signaled for the squad to lower their weapons as well.

"We aren't here to kill anyone, we just want to know what the hell is going on kid, so can you fill me in?" Hector asked him.

"What do you mean what's going on? You mean with the super mutants?" the kid asked.

The hell was a super mutant?

"No kid, what happened here? Why is everything destroyed?" Hector asked again.

Thomas walked up behind Hector, ready to join in the conversation.

"What are you talking about? It's always been like this man." Dusty stated.

"No it hasn't, this is Washington D.C right?" Thomas asked.

"Well… yeah, but people usually call it the capital wasteland." Dusty said.

"Capital wasteland? What's that all about?" Hector asked. "Why is everything like this? What happened to D.C?"

"Are you guys serious? You mean to tell me that you actually don't know?" Dusty said.

"Don't know what?" Hector asked.

"You know, the great war?" Dusty asked.

"You mean with the aliens right?" Thomas asked him.

"What? Aliens don't exist, what the hell are you talking about? Anyway, there was this huge nuclear war back in… I think it was twenty seventy seven? I can't remember. They bombed each other to shit, and D.C was one of the cities to get hit." Dusty said.

"Twenty seventy seven!? What the hell!?" Thomas yelled.

…

…

…

Twenty seventy seven? How was this possible? Were they in the future? Dwayne slammed his fist against the wall. What was the point of all this?

"_**The point of this, bug, is to see you adapt." **_Dwayne heard a familiar voice say.

"What?" Dwayne asked.

"I didn't say anything sir." Said Zhang, standing next to him.

"No, not you, I thought I heard someone else." Dwayne responded.

"_**You old fool, only your ears will hear my voice." **_ The voice responded once again.

"Who are you!?" Dwayne yelled.

"Sir, calm down!" Zhang yelled, grabbing Dwayne's shoulders.

"_**I do suppose that I could be called a scientist, but there are more important things that you need to think about. We will not speak again until you discover it." **_The voice said.

Dwayne then realized whose voice it belonged to, it was the cloaked being from the funeral! How was that thing talking to him? What did it want him to discover? Dwayne felt an intense feeling of fear all throughout his body, he felt himself shaking, and he screamed.

"Sir calm down!" Zhang yelled, tightening his grip.

Dwayne struggled, and a few more people in mission control came to help restrain him. Dwayne's vision blurred, then he went limp.

"Damn!" Zhang yelled.

…

…

…

"How is this even remotely possible? That not only means that the base got teleported to D.C, but we are in the future as well!" Takeshi yelled.

"Calm down man, we'll figure this out." Hector told him.

"How will we figure this out exactly Hector? This doesn't make any damn sense!" Takeshi yelled.

"Okay, you're right man, this doesn't make any damn sense, but we have to keep calm alright?" Hector said.

"Hey, you guys, you asked a lot of questions about the wasteland, but who the hell are you guys!?" Dusty asked.

"Sorry kid, that's classified information." Lisa told him.

"Who cares? Aren't you the one that was flying in the air? The one who killed that super mutant?" Dusty asked.

"Who else would it be kid?" Lisa asked him.

"I dunno, but what the hell is that thing on the other side of the bridge!? It looks pissed!" Dusty asked.

"Oh, umm… That's Devin." Thomas said.

"That thing has a name?" Dusty asked.

"Careful, you don't want him hearing you say that." Thomas said.

"Hey, I know this is sudden and all, but my friends got taken by some super mutants and are being held captive up at the old Germantown police HQ. Could you please try to bring them back?"

"I don't know if we can. It's up to the commander." Thomas said.

"_Dwayne fell unconscious, and in the meantime, I will be assuming command of the operation."_ Zhang said.

"He fell unconscious? Why?" Thomas asked.

"_I have no idea, but I'll tell you what happened when you all get back." _

"Zhang, this kid told us that some civilians are being held by some super mutants up at Germantown police HQ, should we go save em?" Hector asked.

"_Well, yes of course. We protect humanity, no matter where we are." _ Zhang said.

"Dude, you sound so cheesy." Lisa commented.

"_Just go save those civilians."_ Zhang said.

"Copy that, let's move out everyone." Hector said.

"How do we get there kid?" Lisa asked Dusty.

"Well, you have to go back across the bridge, take a right on the road, turn left, and just follow the road all the way up to the police HQ. Be careful though, the place is crawling with muties." Dusty said.

"Got it, we'll be back in a little bit, stay safe." Hector told him.

"I'll try, I would say the same to you too, but um… 'Devin' looks like he could take on at least ten of those things, so I'm not worried." Dusty said.

"Kid, you don't ever overestimate, or underestimate anything, if you do, you die. Speaking from personal experience here." Takeshi said.

"Jeez okay, calm down." Dusty said.

…

…

…

Dr. Shen was so confused about this whole situation, Bradford was gone, Dwayne had a mental breakdown, and everything was still working! Well, save for the normal power generators, those had been disabled. The elerium generators were unaffected, most likely because they can function almost independent of outside sources. The thermo generators were another issue, they were still working, but he had no Idea why. Did the steam vents travel with them as well? It didn't make sense to the old engineer.

**Okay, that's the second chapter done, now if there is anything that you all want to suggest, that would be great. What I mean by that, are things such as: Gene mods, Autopsy results, new things to engineer, and some other things. Past this point, I don't really know where to take this. After The German town HQ area, where should XCOM go next?**


End file.
